


polished

by cheinsaw



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Nail Polish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-15 03:52:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2214765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheinsaw/pseuds/cheinsaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice is determined to make Marisa's hands look presentable. Marisa isn't having any of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	polished

"Sit still, would you?" Alice asks, only slightly irritated. Marisa keeps moving, and she's making it exceedingly difficult to concentrate. Alice holds Marisa's hand in her own, Marisa's rough fingers against her palm. And in the other hand, seemingly Marisa's worst enemy: a nail file.

"Do I really need that thing?" Marisa groans. "My nails're short enough."

"It's not about filing them down. You've done a great job of that yourself. Do you bite them?"

"Maybe." Marisa flashes that familiar grin, the one Alice not-so-secretly loves. "So what is it for?"

"Shaping them evenly so they aren't all messy."

"I don't mind messy. Or uneven."

"Yes, I know. But I do, and I'm the one doing your nails."

Alice had suggested a week earlier that she and Marisa get their nails done together at a salon, as a fun date. Marisa immediately balked at the idea, saying it was too fancy and she would "probably screw up somehow".

"You just sit there and get your nails painted, it's not that hard," Alice had said, almost laughing. But even as the words came out of her mouth she had realized that the idea of Marisa – unbrushed hair, ripped jeans, loud laugh, wild eyes – was so out of place with her schema of a nail salon that it bordered on hilarious. So Alice had decided to rely on her own steady hand and knowledge of nail care, and offered to paint Marisa's nails herself.

"Only if I can have an awesome color," was Marisa's reply. And so it was sealed.

Even so, Marisa's being moderately uncooperative, jerking away whenever Alice brings out a new tool until she hears, in detail, what it does. And even then, she still tries to put up a fight. Alice is thinking about bribing her, or maybe tying her down.

"What's that?" Marisa asks, pulling her hand back as Alice pulls out a bottle of translucent bluish polish.

"A base coat nail strengthener treatment. It'll make the manicure last longer." She applies the brush to Marisa's pinkie, and Marisa yells.

"It's cold!"

"Oh, deal with it." Alice keeps painting, nice and steady, in even lines over Marisa's nails. Marisa stays put, and eventually it's done, barely noticeable if not for the wet shine.

"Are you gonna do the other one?" Marisa asks, examining her hand.

"Yes. I just think we should let this one dry first."

Alice watches as Marisa starts to wave her hand around wildly, then blows on it and tilts it towards the light to see the gleam on her fingernails. "Can you make 'em that shiny all the time?"

"With certain top coats, yeah. I have one that might work."

"Okay, I want that," Marisa says.

"Hey, while it's drying, you need to pick a color," Alice says. She pulls the bottles out of her desk drawer one by one, lining them up so Marisa can see clearly.

Marisa just looks at her from across the desk.

"Well?"

"These are all pink," Marisa huffs.

"No they aren't, one's red. And this one's blue," Alice points out. Marisa rolls her eyes, and Alice continues, "What's wrong with pink?"

"You said I could have an awesome color."

"Pink is awesome. I use these all the time."

"Well, yeah, but like, there's a difference between nice pink and cool pink, you know? I'd wear, like, neon pink. These're all..." Marisa seems to struggle with finding the right word. "Delicate. Like if you were getting your nails done for a wedding or somethin'."

Alice sighs. There is no placating Marisa with pale pastels that have names like Love Letters or Rose Petals or Ballet Slippers. She's going to have to resort to desperate measures after coming this far.

"Alright. Let's go to the store."

"You serious?"

"Yeah, you can pick your own color. Since none of these are awesome enough."

"Sweet!" Marisa exclaims.

"Let me finish doing the base coat on the other hand first. You aren't getting out of it."

"Fine." But she's smiling, even as Alice paints and polishes Marisa's other hand to near-perfection.

* * *

 

When they arrive at the store Marisa tries to veer towards the snacks, but Alice guides her to the cosmetics section, holding her hand and tugging her along.

"What _is_ all this stuff," Marisa asks, looking around. "Who even needs this much makeup?"

"People who're serious about it. My mom. I dunno."

"It's all like super expensive too, what the hell! I could buy two tacos for the price of this," Marisa says, gesturing at a row of lipsticks.

"Don't worry, I'm not putting any of that on you." Alice easily finds the nail polish, and starts examining the colors, pulling out a bright green that she thinks Marisa might like.

"Wild Child," she reads off the back.

"What?"

"That's its name."

"They have _names_?" Marisa says in awe.

"Yep. Usually on the bottom or the back." Before Alice can finish her sentence, Marisa's started pulling several bottles out and flipping them over.

"Holy crap! Who comes up with these?" She snorts. "Casino. This is like the opposite of what I picture as a casino color."

"I feel like Casino should be gold sparkles," Alice agrees.

"Or like, a red carpet kinda thing. Oh my god, this one is called Jailbait. That's whack." Marisa's eyes shine.

Alice is happy, at least, to see her so amused at this. Marisa keeps reading them off, and they trade the best names they can find.

" _Fruit-ta-ta_. I feel dirty just saying that."

"Over You," Alice retorts. "Saddle Me Up."

"These are horrifying. I kinda want the one with the creepiest name just for that."

"How about Cougar Attack?"

Marisa snorts. "Awful. Oh, jeez, here's Girls Love Ponies. This is unreal."

They gradually drift apart, examining opposite ends of the displays to cover the most ground at once, falling into silence for the most part.

"Hey, Alice, check this out," Marisa calls down the aisle, and Alice turns. "This one's actually called Alice."

"No way," Alice says, putting down the bottle of dark blue she'd been looking at. True to Marisa's word, the little label on the bottom does say her name in tiny print, ALICE, and Marisa's grinning.

"I want this one."

"I thought you didn't like the pastels." The nail polish is the palest shade of lavender that Alice can imagine, with a fine sheen of glitter.

"Well, yeah, but it'd be awesome to wear something that has the same name as my girlfriend."

"Are you sure you don't want the neon?"

"Nope. I want Alice." Marisa grins, and to Alice, it feels like it lights up the whole store. "Maybe we can put some rainbow sparkly shit on top of it so everybody knows how gay I am."

Alice nearly melts at Marisa's enthusiasm. "How about star decals? I think I have some."

"Do they sparkle?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll take 'em!"

* * *

 

Marisa is grinning as Alice paints her nails, talking idly about nothing and remarking about how excited she is to have her nails done, now that she's found the right color. She even compliments Alice on how unwavering her hand is, how even the coats are, how "sick and awesome" her placement of the glittering star decals is. And Alice finds that she, too, can't stop smiling.

It is not Alice's best work, but it'll do, because Marisa is impressed. "You're the best, Alice!" she says when it's done, and presses a kiss to the corner of Alice's mouth. And in the several days after, when Marisa's fingers are intertwined with hers, and she can steal glances at the pale lilac nails coated in shiny glitzy stars, warmth blossoms in Alice's chest. She is so lucky, so very delighted to have Marisa as her girlfriend.

"Can you fix these for me?" Marisa asks three weeks later, when the polish has chipped beyond repair. "Maybe we can go back and get that Girls Love Ponies color."

Alice is all too happy to oblige.

**Author's Note:**

> every single one of those color names is 100% real and i am very afraid of whoever comes up with them


End file.
